Arnolfo di Cambio

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Arnolfo di Cambio (c.1245–c.1302). Master-mason and sculptor, perhaps born in Colle Val d'Elsa, Tuscany, but also referred to in the early C16 as a German, he assisted Nicola Pisano of Siena in the 1260s, before going to Rome in 1277, where he designed a number of sepulchral monuments. His most important surviving tomb is that of Cardinal de Braye (d. 1282) in the Church of San Domenico at Orvieto. He evolved a type of tomb designed to be set against a wall, with a gabled canopy carried on colonnettes protecting an effigy on a sarcophagus, which established the precedent for a century or so. He designed several handsome ciboria, including those over the high altars at San Paolo fuori le mura (1285) and Santa Cecilia in Trastévere (1293), both in Rome. He was probably familiar with French Gothic architecture, and was master-mason for the new Cathedral in Florence (begun 1294–6), responsible for the nave and aisles, and for an earlier version of the present east end, possibly influenced by Rhineland precedents (especially Cologne Cathedral). His other Florentine designs (according to Vasari) include the great Church of Santa Croce (begun 1294–5), the choir of the Badia (begun 1284), and perhaps the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio (c.1310).

Bibliography

Romanini (1980);
Jane Turner (1996);
Vasari (1568);
J. White (1987)

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